The California Department Of Food And Agriculture Offers Close On How To Grow Weed

As the decades-long war on marijuana is finally coming to an end, government and educational establishments are relaxing their stance and finally embracing what it means to have fully legalized the plant. In Santa Ana, California, state officials took new steps to educate anyone interested in growing marijuana.

The government used to lock you up in a cage for smoking it, now they want to teach you how to grow it. It's an important lesson in perspective and how just because the government says so or there's a law doesn't always make it right. Marijuana is helping veterans manage PTSD, cancer patients get through the pain, and young children with debilitating seizures to live a normal life.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture held a cultivation and licensing workshop in Santa Ana on Tuesday. Basically, they are teaching how to grow weed legally and educating the public and what is involved in producing the cash crop. A California Department of Food and Agriculture representative named Rebecca Foree says, "There are a lot of checks and balances to make sure that one, public safety is taken care of, environmental health is preserved."

The class isn't the only official education available, The Goldwater recently reported on an Ontario college offering classes on the marijuana business with some examples of classes being, "Cannabis Production Science I," "Biology and Evolution of Cannabis," and "Introduction to Analysis of Cannabis."

While some local governments are still working out the details of how to handle the growing business, California is poised to profit from the multi-billion dollar industry when recreational marijuana use becomes legal in the state. One man ready to take California's new class is Max Groso who waits in a packed hotel meeting room. Groso says he can't wait for the sale of marijuana to become fully legal across the state on January 1.

Another marijuana businessman named Armond Wilkerson is ready to expand his farm and start growing marijuana. "The problem will be with the local municipalities. But they'll catch up though, once they see the money," he said. "(It's) a cash crop unlike any other that I've ever grown. I'm just looking for the opportunity, see what it holds, play by the rules and have a little fun," Wilkerson continued.

California is holding two other workshops in Southern California on growing marijuana, one in San Bernardino and another in Palm Desert but both are full.